Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1) Michigan is off to a 9-1 start
It’s been 18 years since Michigan got off to such a hot start. The No. 2 Wolverines are 9-1 for the first time since 2007-08 with a 2-1 overtime win over Notre Dame on Saturday, finishing off a weekend sweep.
Will Horcoff netted his team-leading 10th goal of the season to win the game in OT. He is tied for second in the nation in scoring with three other players.
“We felt like it was coming,” Michigan coach Brandon Naurato told the Michigan student newspaper. “There was good team talk on the bench. We were getting chances, it just wasn’t going in. Their goalie stood on his head. I thought he was really good. The first half of the game, we didn’t get a lot of second opportunities at the net.”
2) Penn State sweeps Ohio State
Who needs football? No. 4 Penn State’s hockey team went into Columbus for a weekend set and found the success Thursday and Friday its gridiron counterparts couldn’t against Ohio State on Saturday. The Nittany Lions won a pair of one-goal games by scores of 3-2 and 4-3.
Penn State scored three power-play goals in the 4-3 win to run their winning streak to seven games and improve to 9-1-0 overall and 2-0-0 in B1G. It was just the third sweep for Penn State over the Buckeyes all-time and was just its second-ever in Columbus.
“Anytime you win in the B1G, you did a heck of a job,” coach Guy Gadowsky told the Penn State student paper. “(Especially) anytime you sweep. It’s very difficult to sweep on the road. It doesn’t happen a lot, so (we) should feel really good about it.”
JJ Wiebusch scored to make it 2-0 margin at 6:20 of the first period. Wiebusch’s 11 goals lead the nation.
3) Maine sweeps BU
The scoreboard operator at Alfond Arena got a workout on Saturday night as No. 12 Maine finished a home sweep vs. No. 5 Boston University.
Tied 1-1 in just the first minute, Maine went on to an 8-5 win. The previous night, Brandon Holt scored 43 seconds into overtime to lift the Black Bears to a 5-4 win.
“I’m not much of a celly guy, so I was just going to jump into the glass,” Holt told the Portland Press Herald. “Then all of a sudden I’m staring at the ceiling.”
4) Denver splits with Alaska Anchorage at home
No. 6 Denver scored four power-play goals and goaltender Quentin Miller stopped all 17 shots he faced in a 6-0 win over Alaska Anchorage Saturday night to earn a non-conference split. Anchorage was a 4-3 overtime winner the previous night.
James Reeder scored twice and added an assist and Boston Buckberger also had a 3-point game with three assists. It was the second shutout of the season for Miller.
“I liked a lot of how we played,” Denver coach David Carle said. “Just thought our determination to score, be in the inside and be able to execute offensively was there tonight. Liked (our) competitiveness all the way up until the end.”
5) NoDak, Duluth split
Another chapter in the storied NCHC rivalry between No. 8 North Dakota and No. 10 Minnesota Duluth was written this past weekend as the teams split a two-game set in Grand Forks, N.D. The visiting Bulldogs took a 4-3 overtime win on Friday while North Dakota getting its revenge the next night with a 5-1 rout.
The Fighting Hawks’ leading goal scorer is 17-year-old freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff, who scored his fourth goal with a second-period snipe in Saturday’s game.
“He can really shoot the puck,” North Dakota coach Dane Jackson told the Grand Forks Herald. “He’s got a heavy shot. He’s got good offensive instincts.”
6) St. Cloud State, scoring machine
St. Cloud State roared back from a 6-5 loss to No. 3 Western Michigan with a 5-1 rout against the defending NCAA champions on Saturday night.
It was the fourth straight five-goal game for St. Cloud State. With 20 goals in their last five games, the Huskies are now averaging 3.9 goals per game, which ranks third in the NCHC and eighth nationally.
7) Northeastern sweeps BC
Expect Northeastern to be among the top 20 teams in this week’s USCHO D-I men’s poll, after the Huskies swept No. 11 Boston College over the weekend by scores of 4-1 at home Friday night and 3-0 the next night on BC’s home sheet.
The Huskies got a 32-save shutout from goaltender Lawton Zacher on Saturday, improving his save percentage to .952 and lowering his goals-against average to 1.51.
8) Ivy League joins the party
The six Ivy League schools that participate in ECAC Hockey decided to join the rest of the country by, you know, actually playing hockey, with a combined record of 4-3-1 over the weekend going into Sunday night.
Princeton was the only school to win both its games going into Sunday, sweeping a home series vs. Alaska Fairbanks by scores of 5-2 and 6-3. The latter game was tied 1-1 after two periods before a furious seven-goal third.
The sweep was Princeton’s first at Hobey Baker Rink to open a season in 70 years – the last time coming in 1955-56 when the Tigers beat Providence by scores of 7-4 and 5-2.
9) Bentley dominates Mercyhurst in AHA weekend sweep
Despite it being Hallowe’en weekend, there was nothing eerie going in Erie, Pa. — at least not for Bentley. Seven different players scored and freshman goalie Lukas Swedin earned his first NCAA win as the Atlantic Hockey America-leading Falcons defeated Mercyhurst 7-2 on Saturday to sweep its second straight series.
The win came on the heels of a 3-1 Bentley win the previous night. The Falcons are off to a 4-0 start in Atlantic Hockey following a sweep of Canisius last weekend.
10) Beavers continue CCHA hot streak to start season
Bemidji State remains undefeated in CCHA play, improving to 3-0-1 with an undefeated weekend against Bowling Green. Sophomore Hudson Thornton scored 2:58 into overtime on Saturday night to give the Beavers a 3-2 win. The previous night, the teams skated to a 4-4 tie before Bemidji won in a shootout.
Bemidji State has earned a point in all four conference games this season and are back above .500 with a 5-4-1 overall record.